I did however get as far as the lakes, where there was a couple of surprises, for as well as the 37 MALLARD, and 4 MOORHEN, a COOT (66) was also present, but a much scarcer patch bird was blindingly obvious - a MUTE SWAN (67) ! Coot and Mute Swan are both common species that can be found on most water bodies, but on my patch they are scarce birds, especially the Mute Swan, only one other record has been had this year, and that was a flyover back on March 24th, todays sighting of one actually on the lake is only the second record of Mute Swan on the water, the last was back in February 2008. Such a shame the weather was so poor my camera was left at home :-( Two CORMORANTS flew in to fish whilst I was there, making the lakes a busier place than they have been for quite some time!
The two new species for the month takes the December tally to 67, which places it in joint 3rd place over all, the same total as achieved in 2009.
I spent some time this afternoon trying to get some images from my garden feeders for todays blog post, but it really was so dull and wet it proved to be quite a challenge, the best I achieved was another grainy GREEN WOODPECKER effort, and a COAL TIT .
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| Green Woodpecker |
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| Green Woodpecker |
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| Coal Tit |
9 comments:
After seeing the huge numbers of mute swans and coots this arvo I can barely imagine a wetland without them!
Excellent pecker pics again Warren.
Congrats with a joint 3rd - a sterling effort considering the lousy weather this month
Cheers
Davo
Its been raining all day here Warren, thoroughly fed up. I hope to go out tomorrow. I wonder if it will rain!!!!!!
Looks like a short window of opportunity first thing Marc :-)
I'm with you on the scarceness of those 2 species, I'm always pleased to see those. Great pics again mate.
Cheers Alan,
It's always a relief to get these two on the year list! :-)
great photos of the woodpecker
Well done on the Mute Swan. I like you have very few records on my patch with 3 flying over on 28th January being the only record this year..
How odd it is that two such scarce species there are are just about the only ones I am guaranteed to see on the very few small water bodies in my area, those and Mallards, Moorhens and Canada Geese are all we see here on a regular basis.
Lovely photos both on this post and on the post before. Graininess, what graininess?? Your 'graininess' is not even in my league ;-)
Heavy rain all day here so far :-(
Hi Songbird,
Rain just arrived as you posted :-) Enjoy the holidays :-)
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